fcibrarp  of  Che  Cheolocjtcd  ^emmarjp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

The  Estate  of 
Victor  S.  Lukens 

KCLpO~5 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/aretheremodernmiOOdagg 


THE  REV.  HENRY  B.  WILSON.  B.D. 

FOUNDER  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  THE  NAZARENE 


DEDICATION 

“Spiritual  Healing  through  Prayer  is  based  on  as  immutable  laws 
of  the  universe  as  is  electricity  or  the  radio  or  the  aeroplane.  The  law 
operates  successfully  when  it  is  correctly  applied.  That  we  some¬ 
times  fail  to  get  the  healing  does  not  in  the  least  invalidate  the  law. 
What  we  need  to  remember  is  that  there  are  regular  rules  for  this 
science  as  for  any  other. 

“I  regard  the  Rev.  Henry  B.  Wilson,  of  Boonton,  N.  J.,  as  one  of 
the  great  experts  who  know  how  to  apply  them.  In  his  line  he  is  as 
great  a  specialist,  we  may  say,  as  is  Edison  in  the  Electrical  or  Marconi 
in  the  Wireless  World.” 

Charles  H.  Brent, 

Bishop  of  Western  New  York. 


To  the  memory  of  this  “great  specialist”  this  book  is 
affectionately  dedicated  by  some  of  his  friends 


r  r m 


<*§>♦'"* . v*/} 

MAR  12  1953 


Are  There  Modern 


^  < 
>%sigal  $0 


Miracles? 


By  Mabel  Potter  Daggett 


1923 

THE  NAZARENE  PRESS 

ASHEVILLE,  N.  C. 


FOREWORD 

THE  article  reprinted  in  this  booklet,  by  permission  of  the  author 
and  the  publishers  of  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal ,  in  which  maga¬ 
zine  it  appeared  last  June,  has  brought  many  hundreds  of  letters 
of  enquiry  to  the  offices  of  the  Society  of  the  Nazarene. 

We  are  sending  out  this  booklet,  not  merely  for  the  publicity  it 
will  give  to  our  own  Society,  but  because  it  shows  clearly  and  graphic¬ 
ally  the  whole  modern  trend  towards  the  restoration  of  this  Ministry 
within  the  Churches  and  Missions  of  our  land. 

As  Tennyson  reminds  us: 

“God  reveals  Himself  in  many  ways, 

Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world.” 

And  while  we  may  disagree  with  the  methods  employed  by  some  of  the 
evangelists  referred  to  in  this  article,  we  can  still  rejoice  that  the 
Healing  message  is  being  so  fearlessly  presented  and  that  the  “signs 
following”  are  so  abundantly  manifest. 

As  the  writer  of  this  article  was  not  herself  engaged  in  any  sort 
of  propaganda  and  was  quite  unbiassed  in  her  point  of  view,  it  is  all 
the  more  surprising  that  so  large  a  part  of  her  message  is  occupied 
with  the  revival  of  the  Healing  Ministry  within  the  Episcopal  Church. 

If  she  had  been  permitted  more  space  she  would  doubtless  have 
followed  the  movement  to  the  Antipodes  and  would  have  referred  (as 
we  have  done  in  the  Nazarene  for  September,  1923)  to  the  marvel¬ 
lous  revival  of  the  Healing  Ministry  in  the  Anglican  Churches  of 
Australia. 

Mr.  Hickson  may  be  criticized  by  some  good  friends  of  the 
Church,  but  the  fact  remains  that  he  has  aroused  the  whole  Anglican 
Communion  throughout  the  world  to  a  remarkable  and  active  interest 
in  this  Christlike  ministry  to  the  sick  and  suffering  which  our  Lord 
Himself  instituted.  Recent  records  of  his  work  in  South  Africa, 
China,  Japan  and  Australia,  as  well  as  in  such  a  conservative  center 
as  Aberdeen,  Scotland,  all  combine  to  demonstrate  that  his  message  is 
being  welcomed  by  all  the  progressive  minds  in  the  Anglican  Body. 
The  recent  endorsement  given  by  the  Archbishop  of  Melbourne, 
Australia  (reprinted  in  the  September,  1923,  Nazarene),  bears  elo¬ 
quent  testimony  to  the  above  statements. 

In  the  United  States  the  endorsement  is  a  little  slower,  just  be¬ 
cause  the  Healing  ministry  has  been  too  much  exploited  by  itinerant 
preachers  and  “healers”  whose  sensational  and  spectacular  methods 
have  only  served  to  increase  the  cautiousness  of  some  of  the  more 
orthodox  and  conservative  minds  in  the  Church. 


The  Society  of  the  Nazarene  represents  the  happy  “Via  Media” 
between  the  extremes  of  conservatism  and  radicalism  in  the  Ministry 
of  Healing.  Our  methods  were  wonderfully  demonstrated  in  the  Mis¬ 
sion  of  eight  days  held  at  St.  Mark’s  Church,  Denver,  Colorado, 
August  19-26,  1923.  At  this  Mission,  held  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Society  of  the  Nazarene,  four  bishops,  twenty  parochial  clergy,  two 
deaconesses  and  a  large  number  of  consecrated  laity  ministered 
nightly  to  a  congregation  of  more  than  800  people  and  many  wonder¬ 
ful  healings  took  place.  No  one  personality  was  exploited  or  projected 
in  the  meetings.  It  was  truly  a  Mission  of  the  Church  in  its  corporate 
capacity,  and  the  slogan  of  the  Mission  as  reported  by  the  local  press 
was  that  “Apostolic  Succession  is  most  truly  vindicated  by  Apostolic 
Success.” 

We  wish  to  express  our  very  hearty  thanks  to  Mrs.  Daggett  for 
permission  to  reprint  this  article  from  her  original  MSS.  (which  in¬ 
cludes  some  matter  not  used  in  the  Ladies’  Home  Journal).  Also  to 
the  Curtis  Publishing  Co.  for  similar  permission.  We  pray  that  God 
will  use  this  little  publication  to  still  further  promote  the  coming  of 
His  Kingdom  and  the  doing  of  His  will  “on  earth  as  it  is  done  in 
Heaven.” 

A.  J.  Gayner  Banks,  Director, 

Society  of  the  Nazarene. 


Asheville,  N.  C.,  September,  1923. 


Are  There  Modern  Miracles? 


TAKE  a  look  through  the  library  shelves  for  a 
small,  black  leather  bound  volume.  And  it  prob¬ 
ably  has  gold  edges  and  maybe  your  mother’s 
name  written  on  the  fly  leaf.  Get  it  down.  Dust 
it  off.  It’s  a  very  old  classic  that’s  come  to  be  the  new  best 
seller.  Why?  Because  there’s  a  Great  Physician  whom 
two  continents  are  talking  about.  And  the  Bible  contains 
a  record  of  his  practice. 

A  revival  of  religion  as  an  adjunct  to  daily  living  of  as 
practical  importance  as  modern  plumbing  or  electricity,  is 
thrilling  through  the  churches.  And  its  converts  are  hold¬ 
ing  aloft  the  Bible  as  the  key  to  health.  No,  I’m  not  talk¬ 
ing  of  that  newest  church  which  within  a  generation  has 
belted  the  earth  with  its  adherents  of  health  and  prosperity. 
Nor  yet  of  that  oldest  church  whose  claim  to  miracle  cures 
some  of  us  in  protestant  superiority  have  been  wont  to  dis¬ 
miss  as  superstition.  It’s  your  church  that  is  now  concerned. 
Almost  any  Sunday  now  from  your  pastor  you  may  hear  of 
divine  healing. 

From  as  divergent  points  as  London  and  Edinburgh  and 
Rome  and  Tokio  and  Cape  Town  and  Melbourne,  the  asso¬ 
ciated  press  carries  reports  that  it  has  occurred.  A  Pres¬ 
byterian  Church  in  San  Francisco  and  a  Methodist  Church 
in  Philadelphia,  alike,  are  teaching  it.  In  Los  Angeles  a 
Baptist  preacher  has  just  erected  a  $100,000  interdenomi- 


7 


national  auditorium  for  it.  In  Washington,  D.  C.,  six  or 
seven  churches  advertise  it  among  their  weekly  announce¬ 
ments.  In  New  York  City,  historic  Trinity  and  Grace  and 
a  dozen  other  churches  are  doing  it.  In  Wichita,  Kansas, 
sixteen  ministers  joined  in  a  campaign  for  it.  In  Toronto 
on  a  single  Sunday  it  was  the  theme  from  twenty  pulpits. 

Then  this  has  now  occurred:  at  its  last  General  Con¬ 
vention,  the  Episcopal  Church,  the  denomination  that  is  the 
most  established  and  conservative  of  all,  endorsed  the  effi¬ 
cacy  of  prayer  as  an  instrument  in  the  cure  of  disease. 

If  the  new  idea  hasn’t  yet  reached  your  town,  it’s  as  sure 
to  as  the  radio  that  arrived  a  year  or  so  ago.  You  may  be 
able  to  dismiss  it  with  a  smile  when  the  rumor  first  comes 
from  the  kitchen  that  the  cook’s  cousin  has  been  healed. 
Your  sister-in-law’s  claim  to  a  cure  may  be  rather  casually 
received.  You  begin  to  take  notice  when  your  hostess  at  a 
fashionable  dinner  party  announces  that  she  is  well  of  that 
trouble  for  which  she  was  going  to  New  York  for  an  opera¬ 
tion.  No,  it  isn’t  the  town’s  leading  specialist.  Nor  even 
psychoanalysis.  It  is  prayer. 

One  day  you  may  even  meet  Jones  or  Brown  or  Smith 
on  the  stieet  such  a  picture  of  health  you  think  he  must  be 
just  back  from  Hot  Springs.  He  says  it’s  something  better. 
And  he  bursts  forth  with  the  panacea  he’s  just  got  to  have 
every  one  know:  “Tell  you  what,  old  fellow,  I’ve  taken  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  my  Healer  and  Savior.” 

Catch  your  breath.  Do  you  get  what’s  going  round? 
It’s  the  old  time  religion,  but  with  a  new  content  that  makes 
it  as  secular  as  it  is  sacred :  Christ  the  Redeemer  of  the 


8 


world  from  sickness  as  well  as  from  sin,  a  faith  as  valuable 
for  here  as  for  the  hereafter. 

Christians  formerly  were  wont  to  “confess”  a  religious 
experience.  But  these  new  converts  want  to  shout  theirs. 
Jones  and  Brown  and  Smith  and  the  rest  say  that  the  search¬ 
ing  of  the  Scriptures  has  disclosed  an  original  gospel  that 
included  a  gift  of  healing.  They’re  as  enthusiastic  about  it 
as  an  archaeologist  who  might  have  turned  up  a  lost  art  of 
a  buried  civilization.  They  open  their  Bible  to  Psalms 
103:3  and  point  you  to  a  God  “who  forgiveth  all  thy  in¬ 
iquities,  who  healeth  all  thy  diseases.”  For  more  definite  in¬ 
structions  which  they  all  are  following,  they  show  you  James 
5:14,15:  “Is  any  among  you  sick,  let  him  call  for  the  elders 
of  the  church  and  let  them  pray  over  him  anointing  him 
with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  And  the  prayer  of  faith 
shall  save  the  sick  and  the  Lord  shall  raise  him  up  and  if  he 
have  committed  sins,  they  shall  be  forgiven  him.” 

“Are  they  crazy?”  But  Smith’s  a  judge  perhaps.  And 
Brown’s  a  member  of  the  Republican  campaign  committee. 
They’re  as  regular  as  that.  They’re  not  Christian  Scientists. 
Nor  are  they  HolyR oilers.  Where  did  they  get  it  then? 

Well,  it  is  out  of  Boonton,  New  Jersey,  that  has  come 
the  Society  of  the  Nazarene  that  is  exerting  a  profound  in¬ 
fluence  on  modern  religious  thought.  Boonton  is  a  small 
place  on  the  map.  But  there  is  a  little  brown  church  there 
that  God  has  set  on  a  hill.  The  Episcopal  clergyman  who 
is  its  rector,  Rev.  H.  B.  Wilson,  is  the  founder  and  director 
of  the  Society  of  the  Nazarene  established  in  1909  for  the 
purpose  of  restoring  the  use  of  prayer  as  it  was  practised  by 


9 


the  early  church.  A  polished,  scholarly  gentleman  and  a 
graduate  of  the  General  Theological  Seminary,  New  York, 
he  is  as  well  versed  in  physiology  and  psychology  as  he  is  in 
theology. 

He  was  a  number  of  years  ago  the  rector  at  Holy  Cross 
in  Brooklyn.  It  happened  to  be  next  to  a  hospital  to  which 
he  was  often  called  to  visit  patients.  And  it  was  in  this  way, 
he  says,  he  made  the  discovery  of  the  Biblical  truth  he  is 
now  giving  his  life  to  promoting.  There  was  a  day  when  he 
was  called  into  the  hospital  office.  “See  here,”  said  the  head 
surgeon,  “so  many  of  the  patients  seem  to  be  improving 
since  you’ve  been  coming  round,  what’s  going  on?” 

“Prayer,  sir,”  was  the  answer.  “All  right,”  agreed  the 
doctor.  “Anyhow,  we  like  it.  Go  ahead.  You  can  have  the 
freedom  of  the  hospital.”  Practically  installed  like  this  as 
unofficial  chaplain,  the  young  clergyman  walked  the  wards 
with  the  doctors,  there  to  acquire  the  experience  later  to  be 
put  to  test  in  his  spiritual  practice. 

His  parish  is  now  as  wide  as  the  world.  So  far  has  the 
little  candle  lighted  in  Boonton  shed  its  beams  that  the 
Society  of  the  Nazarene  now  has  guilds  numbering  thou¬ 
sands  of  members,  some  of  them  in  far  foreign  lands. 
There  are  no  dues.  But  there  is  a  pledge  for  daily  prayer. 
And  there  is  the  Intercession  List  of  those  requiring  assist¬ 
ance  in  recovery  from  illness,  for  whom  the  entire  member¬ 
ship  make  petition  each  day  to  God.  A  valued  member  and 
contributor  to  the  monthly  magazine  is  Sir  William  Will- 
cocks,  K.C.M.G.,  Chief  Engineer  of  the  Assuan  Dam  in 
Egypt.  From  Atlanta,  Georgia,  to  San  Diego,  California, 


10 


and  from  New  Orleans,  to  Ottawa,  Canada,  the  prayer 
guilds  dot  our  own  continent. 

“And  are  people  with  real  ailments  actually  cured  by 
prayer?”  I  asked  Mr.  Wilson.  “I  myself  was,”  he  answered 
quietly.  “Eighteen  years  ago  I  had  a  valvular  heart  lesion 
so  serious  that  a  consultation  of  physicians  had  decided  I 
could  not  live  a  year.  Laying  aside  all  of  thefr  prescrip¬ 
tions,  I  was  healed  wholly  and  completely  by  prayer.”  Then 
he  pointed  to  the  filing  cases  that  line  the  walls  of  his  study 
and  now  overflow  everywhere  through  the  little  brown 
rectory.  “I  have  here  the  evidence  ”  he  said,  “of  the  cure  of 
every  kind  of  disease,  not  only  functional  but  organic  as 
well.”  He  picked  up  at  random  from  the  heap  of  new  mail 
on  his  desk  a  letter.  It  was  from  a  trained  nurse,  the 
daughter  of  a  physician.  “I  was  very  ill  17  months  ago 
with  pulmonary  tuberculosis,”  she  wrote,  “and  my  friends 
had  lost  all  hope  of  saving  me.  But  since  I  began  living  by 
the  teachings  of  the  Nazarene  Society,  I  have  steadily  im¬ 
proved.  Today  I  haven’t  a  symptom  of  tuberculosis.” 
Testimonies  like  these  from  cured  patients  are  published 
each  month  in  The  Nazarene.  This  is  the  little  magazine 
which  Mr.  Wilson  has  been  compelled  to  establish  as  a 
means  of  communicating  to  an  inquiring  world  the  informa¬ 
tion  for  which  Boonton  has  been  fairly  besieged. 

Meanwhile  out  in  Chicago  there  is  Paul  Rader,  Presi¬ 
dent  of  the  Christian  Alliance.  At  its  inception  thirty-five 
years  ago,  when  the  Rev.  A.  B.  Simpson,  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  left  his  New  York  pulpit  to  organize  it,  the  ad¬ 
herents  of  the  Alliance  were  looked  upon  as  a  peculiar 


11 


people.  They  have  always  practised  faith  healing.  Now 
the  organization  has  grown  to  number  some  350  churches 
throughout  the  United  States,  which  since  the  death  of  the 
founder  have  come  under  the  direction  of  Paul  Rader. 

Have  you  ever  heard  him  preach?  There’s  a  punch  to 
his  religion  that  hits  his  hearers  hard.  Paul  Rader  was  a 
prize  fighter  before  he  stepped  into  the  ministerial  ring  to 
become  the  magnetic  and  virile  and  powerful  champion  of  a 
new  Christianity.  The  son  of  a  Methodist  minister,  he  had 
strayed  far  from  his  father’s  faith  when  the  Lord  found  him 
and  brought  him  back  from  Broadway’s  white  light  district. 
People  crowd  his  Tabernacle  in  Chicago  to  hear  this  story 
and  others  by  which  the  preacher  presents  gospel  truth  with 
a  genius  equal  to  a  De  Maupassant.  And  under  Paul 
Rader’s  leadership,  his  religious  group  is  now  to  be  reckoned 
with  in  church  circles. 

For  a  few  years  past  it  has  been  happening  in  city  after 
city  that  some  important  Main  Street  minister  has  put  on  his 
hat  and  gone  across  the  town  to  investigate  what  the  little 
obscure  Christian  Alliance  Church  was  doing  to  draw  such 
crowds.  Some  time  later,  perhaps  a  brother  clergyman  re¬ 
turned  from  a  Metropolitan  convention,  reports  that  fash¬ 
ionable  New  York  churches  are  doing  the  same  thing.  And 
suddenly  the  healing  that  was  peculiar  has  become  popular. 

When  the  Right  Rev.  Wm.  T.  Manning,  who  is  now 
Bishop  of  New  York,  sponsored  the  idea,  a  great  many 
Christians  everywhere  opened  their  Bibles  again  to  find  that 
it  was  correct.  It  was  in  1919  that  James  Moore  Hickson, 
a  layman,  came  from  London  with  letters  from  the  estab- 


12 


lished,  Church  of  England  attesting  the  spiritual  cures  ac¬ 
complished  through  his  laying  on  of  hands  and  prayer. 
Bishop  Manning’s  acceptance  of  Mr.  Hickson  opened  the 
doors  of  the  most  exclusive  religious  edifices  in  America  for 
a  tour  of  the  country  in  which  the  working  of  wonders  was 
witnessed  by  vast  throngs  of  people.  Trinity  chapel,  New 
York,  where  Mr.  Hickson’s  mission  began,  and  Grace 
Church,  where  had  already  been  installed  a  prayer  guild  of 
Mr.  Wilson’s  Nazarene  Society,  became  centres  of  interest  to 
draw  visiting  clergymen  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  Of 
what  takes  place  at  Grace  Church,  the  Right  Rev.  Charles 
Lewis  Slattery,  the  former  rector  who  is  now  Bishop  co¬ 
adjutor  of  Massachusetts,  has  this  to  say:  “There  have  been 
many  cases  of  spiritual  growth  of  the  individual  through  the 
Prayer  Group.  It  is  the  spiritual  growth  of  the  individual 
through  prayer  that  is,  of  course,  the  chief  concern  of  the 
church.  But  we  know  today  that  the  spiritual  man  and  the 
physical  man  are  so  interrelated  that  what  affects  the  soul 
must  register  also  in  its  effect  on  the  body.  Physical  healing 
is  as  it  were  a  sequela  of  the  spiritual  healing.” 

The  Nazarene  group  at  Grace  Church  meets  regularly 
on  Tuesday  afternoons.  One  day  recently  I  stepped  from 
the  rush  and  roar  of  Broadway  into  the  healing  quiet  of 
Grace  Church’s  beautiful  chantry.  The  subject  of  the  day 
presented  by  the  clergyman  in  charge  was  one  of  the  miracles 
of  the  Bible.  Afterward  there  were  people  rising  here  and 
there  in  the  congregation  who  “witnessed”  to  the  modern 
miracle  that  they  said  had  happened  to  them.  Then  the  new 
seekers  for  healing  came  forward  to  the  altar  rail.  As  they 


13 


knelt,  the  clergyman  in  his  white  surplice  passed  along.  He 
stepped  before  each  for  the  anointing  from  the  tiny  vial  of 
olive  oil  that  he  carried.  Touching  the  forehead  in  the  sign 
of  the  cross  and  laying  both  hands  on  the  head  of  the  sup¬ 
pliant,  he  offered  an  individual  prayer  for  each,  specifically 
mentioning  the  nature  of  the  trouble  for  which  relief  was 
sought. 

After  the  service,  I  sought  out  the  officiating  clergyman, 
the  Rev.  Eliot  White.  “Is  it  true,”  I  asked  him,  “that  these 
people  are  actually  healed  through  prayer?” 

“The  results  here  at  Grace  Church,”  Mr.  White  an¬ 
swered,  “speak  for  themselves.  For  anyone  who  has  wit¬ 
nessed  what  here  occurs,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  efficacy 
of  spiritual  healing.  Instantaneous  cures  are  rare.  But  so 
many  people  have  been  markedly  helped  in  a  recovery  from 
serious  illness,  that  although  the  improvement  may  be 
gradual  and  over  a  period  of  time,  it  must  be  ascribed  to  the 
cause  that  so  definitely  antedates  the  physical  change, 
namely  to  prayer.” 

“We  are  working  not  in  opposition  to  but  in  co-operation 
with  the  doctors,”  the  clergyman  continued.  “However,  we 
also  have  cases  with  which  medical  treatment  has  failed  and 
ended,  where  the  prayer  treatment  alone  works  the  cure.  A 
case  I  have  in  mind  is  that  of  a  woman  who  for  months  had 
suffered  from  a  suppurating  gland  and  a  growth  on  the  side 
of  her  neck.  On  account  of  it,  she  was  obliged  to  carry  her 
head  bent  over  to  her  shoulder.  Her  family  doctor  had 
lanced  it  twice  and  inserted  a  drainage  tube,  but  the  dis¬ 
charge  continued.  By  the  month  of  October  the  trouble  had 


14 


become  so  acute  that  at  a  hospital  consultation  an  operation 
was  advised.  But  the  patient  feared  to  risk  it.  For  two 
months  more  she  continued  under  her  own  doctor’s  minis¬ 
trations  to  have  the  affected  part  painted  with  iodine.  At 
last  he  said,  ‘There  is  no  improvement  and  there  is  really 
nothing  more  that  I  can  do  except  to  change  the  dressing  as 
it  is  required.’  The  woman  was  by  now  quite  terrified. 
Her  husband  suggested,  T  guess  if  you  believe  in  your 
religion,  this  is  the  time  to  try  it.’  On  January  25th  she 
came  to  me.  I  laid  my  hands  on  her  head  and  also  on  the 
bandage  on  her  neck  and  prayed  for  her  recovery.  The  next 
morning  she  hurried  to  show  herself  to  the  doctor.  As  he 
removed  the  bandage  he  remarked,  ‘Why,  something  very 
remarkable  has  happened.  This  gland  has  begun  to  heal. 
I  don’t  understand  it.’  Two  days  later  he  removed  the 
bandage  and  threw  it  into  the  waste  basket  with  the  an¬ 
nouncement  that  the  healing  was  complete.  On  January 
29th  she  came  to  church  to  show  us  her  cure.  She  was  hold¬ 
ing  her  head  erect  for  the  first  time  in  months.  She  flexed 
her  neck  easily.  Then  I  carefully  examined  the  neck.  There 
was  only  a  pale  brown  scar  where  before,  only  four  days 
before,  had  been  an  open  wound,  and  an  angry  sore  and  a 
swelling  as  large  as  your  first.  My  assistant,  Rev.  Frank 
Gifford,  was  also  a  witness  to  what  occurred.  And  we  both 
agree  that  here  there  had  been  a  miracle.” 

At  Trinity  Chapel  in  East  26th  Street  next  I  asked  the 
rector,  Rev.  J.  Wilson  Sutton,  “Is  disease  cured  by  prayer?” 
“Spiritual  healing,”  he  answered,  “is  one  of  the  normal 
activities  of  the  church  for  which  it  is  commissioned  today 


15 


exactly  as  it  was  over  1900  years  ago.  We  do  not  rest  out 
belief  here  at  Trinity  on  the  miracles  of  either  the  Old  or  the 
New  Testament.  If  God  be  what  we  know  Him  to  be, 
miracles  are  not  only  possible  today,  but  they  are  the  most 
natural  things  in  the  world.  We  have  seen  them  here  at 
Trinity  where  the  cures  that  have  been  witnessed  leave  no 
room  for  doubt  of  the  healing  power  for  both  organic  and 
functional  disease.  One  of  our  cases  is  that  of  a  young 
married  woman  who  had  suffered  six  years  from  the  results 
of  an  apoplectic  stroke  at  child  birth.  She  could  walk  only 
with  the  aid  of  two  crutches  when  she  came  for  her  anoint¬ 
ing.  On  the  following  morning  she  put  the  crutches  in  a 
closet  and  walked  off  without  them.  She  has  not  used  them 
since.  There  was  a  young  woman  suffering  with  valvular 
heart  disease  who  was  brought  to  Mr.  Hickson’s  service  here. 
I  saw  her  carried  down  the  aisle  on  a  stretcher  for  his  prayer 
and  anointing.  Three  times  afterward  I  myself  prayed  for 
her.  She  is  a  perfectly  well  girl  today.  A  physician  from 
out  of  town  came  for  prayer  and  anointing  for  himself  for 
angina  pectoris.  Suppose  you  read  what  he  says.”  And 
Father  Sutton  passed  me  a  letter  which  read,  over  the  physi¬ 
cian’s  own  signature:  “Laus  deo!  A  veritable  miracle  has 
been  wrought!  I  have  been  as  it  were  remade.  I  can  do 
without  suffering  things  I  have  not  done  in  years.  It’s  all 
very  wonderful.  What  more  can  I  say  than  that  I  am  pro¬ 
foundly  thankful  to  God.” 

“Is  disease  cured  by  prayer?”  I  asked  the  Rev.  Wm.  T. 
Walsh,  the  rector  at  St.  Luke’s,  New  York.  “At  the  spiritual 
healing  service  held  at  St.  Luke’s  each  Thursday,”  he 


16 


answered,  “some  one  is  blessed  with  healing  every  week. 
This  healing  in  answer  to  prayer  is  so  frequent  as  to  put  the 
phenomenon  outside  the  range  of  coincidence.  It  has  been 
demonstrated  now  beyond  question.  It  is  in  accordance 
with  laws  of  the  universe  as  exact  as  the  law  of  gravity. 
These  spiritual  laws  are  recorded  for  our  use  in  the  Bible. 
But  in  order  to  apply  them  successfully,  it  is  essential  to 
master  their  technique.  For  this  we  are  told,  ‘Seek  and  ye 
shall  find.’  Among  our  cases  that  I  may  mention  is  that  of 
a  girl  of  thirteen  obliged  to  wear  steel  braces  on  her  legs  and 
unable  to  walk  even  two  blocks  without  them.  After  three 
prayer  treatments  she  took  off  the  braces  and  is  walking 
normally  today.  A  woman  whose  physician  had  told  her 
she  had  a  valvular  heart  trouble  was  in  one  prayer  treat¬ 
ment  cured  so  that  the  same  specialist  has  pronounced  her 
heart  quite  normal.  A  physician’s  son,  a  boy  suffering  from 
epilepsy,  had  been  despaired  of  by  medical  men.  He  had 
been  having  three  or  four  seizures  a  week.  Under  the  prayer 
and  laying  on  of  hands,  the  boy’s  body  grew  rigid.  He  said 
afterward  it  was  as  if  an  electric  current  passed  through  him. 
He  relaxed  and  was  well.  This  healing  occurred  three  years 
ago  since  which  time  the  boy  has  not  had  another  seizure.” 

Testimonies  like  these  from  prayer  groups  all  over  the 
country  were  the  evidence  examined  by  the  Episcopal  Com¬ 
mission  on  Healing,  among  the  prominent  members  of  which 
were  Bishop  Manning  of  New  York  and  Bishop  Boyd 
Vincent  of  Ohio.  The  report  of  this  commission  adopted  by 
the  Episcopal  General  Convention  in  Portland  in  Septem¬ 
ber  last  contained  this  statement :  “ W e  believe  that  the  body 


17 


no  less  than  the  soul  of  man  was  included  in  the  work  of 
redemption;  that  the  restoration  of  harmony  of  man’s  mind 
and  will  with  the  divine  will  often  brings  with  it  the  restora¬ 
tion  of  the  body;  that  the  full  power  of  the  church’s  cor¬ 
porate  intercession  in  this  connection  has  been  too  little 
realized  and  that  confidence  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  for 
restoration  of  health  has  not  been  sufficiently  encouraged. 
Here  then  is  the  first  great  need  of  the  church  today  in  the 
revival  of  her  ministry  of  healing.” 

Also,  see  Paul  Rader’s  group  now.  “Is  disease  healed 
through  prayer?”  I  asked  Paul  Rader.  “We  have  thousands 
of  our  Christian  Alliance  members  who  bear  witness  that  it 
is,”  he  replied.  “None  of  us,  he  continued,  have  the  least 
objection  to  the  use  of  medicine.  Only  in  my  own  family 
when  anyone  is  ill,  there  is  but  one  doctor  we  will  have.  We 

run  for  the  Great  Physician.” 

So  popular  are  the  Christian  Alliance  tenets  becoming 
today,  that  in  town  after  town  the  little  Christian  Alliance 
Church  can  no  longer  contain  the  people  that  crowd  to  hear 
its  evangelists.  The  largest  hall  that  can  be  hired  is 
required. 

Out  onto  its  platform  has  stepped  Fred  Francis  Bos- 
worth.  Born  on  a  farm  in  Nebraska,  he  had  risen  to  be  a 
teller  and  city  clerk  in  Fitzgerald,  Georgia,  before  he  came  to 
the  pastorate  of  a  little  church  in  Dallas,  Texas.  Some  years 
ago  the  Lord  spake  unto  him  and  called  him  to  a  larger 
field.  He  drew  back  protesting:  How  should  he  with  no 
college  or  theological  training,  dare  to  lift  his  voice  among 
learned  preachers  in  great  cities.  But  the  call  was  insistent. 


18 


At  last,  he  says,  the  Lord  commanded:  It  is  healing  you 
must  teach,  with  prayer  and  anointing. 

“But,  O  Lord,”  he  protested,  “what  if  none  of  them 
should  get  well?” 

“That,”  replied  the  Lord,  “is  my  business.  Yours  is  to 
pray  and  anoint.” 

After  a  week’s  struggle  on  his  knees  before  the  throne, 
he  capitulated:  “All  right,  Lord,  even  though  they  all 
should  die  as  fast  as  I  pour  oil  upon  them.” 

But  they  haven’t.  There  are  now  literally  thousands 
who  assert  that  they  have  been  healed  of  divers  diseases 
through  Mr.  Bosworth’s  ministrations.  In  Miami,  Florida; 
Toronto,  Canada;  Toledo,  Detroit,  St.  Paul,  Pittsburgh, 
Chicago,  and  many  smaller  cities  where  his  great  revivals 
have  been  held  during  the  past  two  years,  his  name  has  be¬ 
come  a  household  word  spoken  with  reverence  and  affection. 

In  the  summer  of  1922,  Mr.  Bosworth  had  arrived  in 
New  York  to  try  out  whether  the  gay  metropolis  would  want 
salvation.  And  perhaps  they  wouldn’t.  But  when  they 
heard  it  was  health,  they  hurried  to  get  it. 

In  the  months  of  August  and  September  2000,  then  3000, 
then  4000  came  nightly  to  the  Christian  Alliance  tent 
pitched  on  a  vacant  lot  on  the  edge  of  Brooklyn.  I  sat  for 
six  weeks  nightly  on  the  platform  there,  from  which  I  saw 
what  occurred. 

Beyond  the  lifted  sides  of  the  tent,  the  people  who 
couldn’t  get  seats,  stood  way  out  among  the  weeds  and  the 
sweet  clover.  Pressed  forward,  straining  to  hear  through- 


19 


out  the  entire  service,  you  could  see  their  heads  out  there  in 
the  darkness  silhouetted  against  the  light  that  streamed  from 
all  the  little  shops  around.  And  along  the  Boulevard  that 
skirted  the  scene,  shot  the  gleaming  headlights  of  the  in¬ 
cessant  automobiles  speeding  on  to  Coney  Island. 

From  a  city  famous  for  all  worldly  pleasures,  this  man 
now  lifted  up  before  them,  had  drawn  his  hearers.  His 
personality  seemed  luminous.  The  serenity  of  a  soul  crystal 
clear  shone  in  his  face.  An  amplifier  that  should  help  to 
carry  his  voice  hung  over  his  head.  He  stood  with  an  open 
Bible  in  his  hand  and  without  sensational  rhetoric  calmly, 
yet  convincingly,  expounded  what  he  says  is  the  word  of 

God. 

And  it  is  the  same  thing  that  Henry  Wilson  says:  that 
“God  is  not  the  author  of  sickness;  that  the  atonement  of 
Christ’s  death  on  the  cross  will  save  the  world  alike  from 
sickness  and  from  sin.  Believe  it  and  accept  it,  and  you 

shall  be  healed  of  all  your  diseases.” 

Night  after  night,  as  the  invitation  was  given  at  the  close 
of  the  sermon,  I  saw  seekers  for  this  healing  fairly  pour 
down  the  aisles.  On  crutches  and  in  wheel  chairs  they  came 
and  some  were  brought  on  cots,  all  manner  of  twisted  and 
deformed  wrecks  of  humanity  our  boasted  civilization  has 

produced. 

It  was  sickness  in  all  its  hideousness  that  was  raising  its 
head,  as  if  homes  had  fairly  belched  forth  the  awful  anguish 
that  on  the  other  occasions  is  covered  and  concealed.  It 
surged  in  waves  that  literally  beat  upon  the  figure  of  the 
man  whose  anointing  touch  offered  the  hope  of  salvation 


20 


from  its  misery.  And  he  stood  among  them,  a  man  of  sor¬ 
rows,  in  his  eyes  the  compassionate  look  of  one  acquainted 
with  grief — O,  all  the  terrible  griefs  of  so  many  cities. 

And  he  moved  among  the  multitude  anointing  them  and 
praying  for  them,  just  as  Mr.  Wilson  does,  “in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth.”  And  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
lame  walked,  the  blind  saw,  the  deaf  heard,  the  dumb  talked, 
and  many  declared  themselves  healed  of  their  diseases. 
Those  who  witnessed  what  occurred  were  irresistibly  im¬ 
pelled  to  sing  unto  the  Lord,  joining  with  the  chorus  under 
the  direction  of  B.  B.  Bosworth,  the  evangelist’s  brother.  It 
was  the  gospel  hymn,  “It’s  Almost  Too  Good  to  be  True,” 
that  made  the  welkin  ring.  Again  and  again  out  over  the 
great  city  rolled  that  ringing  refrain,  “It’s  Almost  Too  Good 
to  be  True.” 

If  you  ask  Francis  Bosworth,  “Does  prayer  cure?”  he 
shows  you.  At  the  close  of  one  of  his  Brooklyn  services,  he 
requested  all  those  present  who  had  at  any  time  experi¬ 
enced  a  cure  in  answer  to  prayer,  to  rise.  “And  what  were 
you  cured  of?”  he  inquired  of  the  man  at  the  beginning  of 
the  first  row.  Like  that  he  went  down  line  after  line  with  the 
question  until  the  answers  had  covered  every  disease  in 
materia  medica.  “I  guess  that  will  be  about  enough,”  he 
announced.  “We  won’t  need  the  testimony  of  the  rest  of 
you.”  But  he  turned  to  his  secretary,  “How  many  people 
are  there  on  their  feet?” 

“I  have  counted  802,  sir,”  the  secretary  replied.  “Now,” 
said  the  evangelist  simply  as  he  faced  his  audience,  “would 
it  be  possible  for  all  of  these  folks  to  be  mistaken?” 


21 


But  if  you  should  wish  further  proof  from  Mr.  Bosworth 
that  spiritual  healing  occurs,  there  are  some  2000  concrete 
cases  that  he  may  cite  as  evidence.  Have  you  heard  the  story 
of  John  Sproul?  It  has  been  told  all  over  the  United  States 
and  has  now  been  translated  into  foreign  languages  to  be 
taken  to  Europe.  Mayor  E.  V.  Babcock  of  Pittsburgh, 
where  it  occurred,  is  kept  busy  answering  inquirers  from  all 
over  the  world.  “Until  I  saw  John  Sproul,”  he  says,  “I 
didn’t  believe  in  miracles.  Now  I  do.  His  spiritual  heal¬ 
ing  has  actually  occurred.  You  can’t  get  away  from  it.” 

Here  is  the  story  as  John  Sproul  himself  and  Mayor 
Babcock  of  Pittsburgh  and  Mr.  Bosworth  the  evangelist 
vouch  for  it:  John  W.  Sproul,  an  American  soldier  from 
Pittsburgh,  fell  in  the  terrible  drive  of  Chateau  Thierry  and 
was  carried  off  the  battlefield  to  a  hospital.  There  were 
injuries  from  which  he  never  recovered.  The  gas  had 
affected  his  lungs  and  bronchial  tubes.  His  voice  was  gone 
and  he  was  from  the  day  of  the  battle  unable  to  speak  above 
a  whisper.  They  operated  on  him  at  Bar  le  due.  There 
were  more  operations  here  in  America,  some  fourteen  in  all, 
from  Bar  le  due  to  Albuquerque,  New  Mexico,  and  San 
Francisco.  But  all  the  skill  of  all  the  army  surgeons  was  of 
no  avail.  John  Sproul  received  a  certificate  of  total  dis¬ 
ability  from  the  army  hospital  at  Carlisle,  Pennsylvania. 
This  was  afterward  augmented  by  the  decision  rendered  at 
Mt.  Alto  Hospital,  Washington,  where  he  was  detained 
under  observation  for  ten  days  to  make  perfectly  sure  before 
he  was  again  dismissed  as  “totally  disabled,”  and  granted  a 
pension  by  the  United  States  Government.  This  pension 


22 


had  been  secured  through  the  intervention  of  Mayor  Bab¬ 
cock  and  influential  Pennsylvania  politicians  whom  he  had 
interested.  For  John  Sproul’s  case  was  known  to  all  Pitts¬ 
burgh.  His  disability  was  such  that  he  was  subject  to  spells 
of  strangulation  that  were  likely  at  any  time  to  overtake  him 
in  the  street.  So  the  Mayor  had  him  provided  with  a 
“courtesy  card”  from  the  Department  of  Public  Safety, 
notifying  whoever  should  pick  him  up  that  he  was  not  drunk 
but  ill  and  must  be  taken  either  home  or  to  a  hospital.  From 
these  spells  of  strangulation  he  had  suffered  so  that  he  had 
not  been  able  to  sleep  a  whole  night  through  in  three  years, 
he  had  not  spoken  aloud  since  the  Chateau  Thierry  Drive, 
and  in  the  many  operations  his  throat  muscles  had  been  so 
cut  away  that  he  was  unable  to  hold  up  his  head  which  fell 
forward  uncontrolled  on  his  breast. 

The  Bosworth  campaign  had  been  in  progress  in  the  city 
of  Pittsburgh  in  1920.  But  to  his  mother’s  urgings  that  he 
try  spiritual  healing,  John  Sproul  had  always  replied  that 
it  was  “fake  stuff.”  Then  Mr.  Bosworth  had  returned  for 
a  second  campaign  in  1921.  Sunday,  October  15th,  John 
Sproul  had  passed  a  night  of  terrible  agony.  On  Monday 
morning  he  walked  into  the  kitchen.  His  wife  had  just  put 
her  weekly  wash  out  on  the  line.  “Elsie,”  he  said  in  his 
whisper,  “come  we’ll  go  to  that  Christian  Alliance  taber¬ 
nacle  this  afternoon.”  Together  they  took  in  the  wash  wet 
as  it  was,  and  started  for  the  meeting.  When  at  the  close  of 
the  service  the  invitation  for  healing  was  given,  the  young 
man  leaned  over  to  his  wife,  “Elsie,”  he  said,  “I’m  going  up 
to  the  platform  and  something  tells  me  that  when  I  come 
back  I  shall  be  well.” 


23 


While  he  was  being  prayed  with  at  the  altar,  the  worker 
used  the  phrase,  “Praise  the  Lord.”  Sproul  thinking  it  a 
command  addressed  to  him,  opened  his  mouth  to  whisper  the 
words.  And  lo,  he  found  himself  uttering  them  out  loud. 
Then  he  shouted,  “Praise  the  Lord.”  As  he  did  so,  there  ran 
through  him  like  a  streak  of  fire,  a  burning  sensation.  And 
then  he  was  perfectly  well.  From  that  moment  he  could 
raise  his  head  and  hold  it  normally  and  he  had  his  perfectly 
natural  voice  back  again.  His  mother  fell  in  a  faint  when 
he  called  her  over  the  telephone.  The  Mayor’s  secretary 
whom  he  also  telephoned  answered,  “Quit  your  kidding. 
This  isn’t  John  Sproul,  because  John  Sproul  can’t  speak  out 
loud.”  “But  he  can,”  insisted  the  voice  at  the  other  end  of 

the  wire. 

Well,  the  morning  newspapers  next  day  carried  the  story 
with  double  headlines  to  all  Pittsburgh.  A  few  days  later 
the  government  surgeons  at  Mt.  Alto  Hospital  looked  John 
Sproul  over  again  and  certified  him  perfectly  cured.  He 
returned  his  pension  to  the  government  and  went  back  to  his 
old  position  in  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company’s  offices. 
For  the  past  year  he  has  been  kept  busy  telling  the  story  of 
his  miraculous  healing.  Now  and  again  he  appears  on  the 
platform  of  Mr.  Bosworth’s  meetings  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  Churches  are  frequently  asking  him  to  speak  from 
the  pulpit.  And  the  sick  are  continually  coming  for  his 
prayers  through  which  cures  are  reported.  So  -that  John 
Sproul  now  is  contemplating  giving  up  his  desk  job,  to 

devote  his  life  to  evangelical  work. 

This  is  what  Madame  Edith  Lambert,  of  Detroit,  is 
doing.  Madame  Lambert  is  a  well-known  concert  singer  in 

24 


the  Middle  West.  She  was  healed  during  the  Bosworth  cam¬ 
paign  in  Detroit.  At  that  time  she  was  planning  to  have  an 
operation  for  an  internal  trouble.  It  was  to  be  done  at  her 
home.  All  of  the  pads  and  appliances  had  been  collected. 
Her  family  physician  who  is  also  a  surgeon  was  ready. 
Then  she  said  to  him,  “But,  doctor,  everyone  is  talking  about 
this  spiritual  healing.  Do  you  suppose  it  might  be  that  I 
could  get  it  so  that  I  would  not  have  to  submit  to  the  knife?” 
“You  could  try  it,”  answered  the  physician.  “See  if  any¬ 
thing  happens.”  She  went  for  the  prayer  and  anointing. 
And  she  says  she  came  home  well.  She  presented  herself 
at  her  physician’s  office  the  next  day  with  the  announcement, 
“Doctor,  it’s  happened.”  After  a  thorough  examination,  the 
doctor  agreed,  “I  can  find  no  trace  of  your  former  trouble. 
All  I  can  say  is  that  you  no  longer  require  the  operation  we 
had  planned.”  Today  Madame  Lambert  has  closed  her 
Detroit  studio  and  given  up  her  profession  of  music  in  order 
that  she  may  devote  all  of  her  time  to  showing  the  sick  the 
way  to  salvation  that  she  herself  has  found.  Out  at  her 
home  in  Algonquin  Avenue,  she  is  answering  her  door  bell 
requests  for  prayers  for  the  sick  as  regularly  as  any  physi¬ 
cian  with  a  large  clientele  of  patients. 

It  is  this  burning  zeal  of  the  people  who  have  been 
healed  and  their  determination  to  pass  on  the  gospel  of 
health  and  salvation  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  that  is  turning 
the  movement  into  a  crusade.  In  city  after  city  of  the  United 
States  today,  the  story  that  Jesus  Christ  heals  is  being  told 
by  those  who  say  that  they  have  experienced  this  healing. 
Miss  Mattie  Perry,  former  superintendent  of  the  Bible 


25 


Training  Institute  at  Elhanan,  New  Hampshire,  is  telling 
the  Southern  States.  Warren  Collins  has  left  his  piano 
store  in  Fort  Worth,  Texas,  to  carry  the  news  from  coast  to 
coast.  Raymond  T.  Richey,  who  says  he  was  healed  twelve 
years  ago  from  astigmatism  and  approaching  blindness,  has 
been  addressing  vast  audiences  in  Houston,  Chicago,  Pitts¬ 
burgh  and  other  cities.  Dr.  H.  E.  Rossler,  a  bone  and  joint 
specialist  with  offices  at  300  Madison  Avenue,  New  York, 
was  an  interested  spectator  at  the  Bosworth  meetings  in 
Brooklyn  last  summer.  Night  after  night  he  was  present  to 
scrutinize  closely  the  cases  that  claimed  to  be  healed. 
“Well,”  he  said  after  six  weeks  of  close  study,  “they  are 
healed  and  that  is  all  there  is  to  it.”  Then  he  went  to  the 
evangelist.  “Bosworth,”  he  said,  “I’m  going  to  give  up  my 
therapeutics  for  yours.”  And  he  has.  His  Madison  Avenue 
office  is  closed.  He  is  in  training  for  evangelical  healing 
work. 

Rev.  P.  C.  Nelson,  in  1921,  resigned  his  pastorate  at 
the  Conley  Memorial  Baptist  Church,  Detroit,  to  take  the 
evangelical  platform  and  preach  healing  and  salvation. 
His  decision  to  this  action  was  reached  as  a  result  of  his  own 
experience.  Through  an  automobile  accident  in  which  he 
was  knocked  down  in  the  street,  he  had  received  a  severe 
injury  to  his  knee.  “Under  medical  treatment,”  says  Mr, 
Nelson,  “the  knee  was  growing  worse.  The  doctor  had  as¬ 
sured  me  I  was  in  for  a  long  siege.  Then  I  called  in  friends 
who  prayed  with  me  according  to  James  5:14  and  15.  I  had 
not  been  off  my  bed  and  had  hardly  been  able  to  move  for 
five  days.  The  Lord  healed  me.  I  arose  and  dressed  my- 


26 


self.  The  next  day  I  was  in  my  pulpit.  On  Monday  morn¬ 
ing  I  gave  my  testimony  before  thirty  Baptist  ministers  in 
Detroit.”  It  was  a  little  later  that  Mr.  Nelson  became  an 
active  assistant  in  Mr.  Bosworth’s  Detroit  campaign.  “I 
saw  there,”  he  says,  “the  most  remarkable  instantaneous 
healings.  I  myself  anointed  and  prayed  for  a  Polish  woman 
who  had  been  blind  for  thirty-three  years.  She  immediately 
regained  her  sight  and  for  the  first  time  in  her  life  she  saw 
her  daughter  who  was  twenty-five  years  of  age  and  had  led 
her  to  the  meeting.  That  day  I  prayed  for  two  other  blind 
people  who  also  regained  their  sight.  The  same  evening  I 
prayed  for  four  deaf  mutes  all  of  whom  were  unable  to  hear 
and  speak.  A  woman,  a  cripple,  was  healed  and  went  out 
carrying  her  crutches  high  in  the  air  while  the  audience 
wept  and  cheered.”  Since  taking  the  platform  as  an 
evangelist  himself,  Mr.  Nelson  declares  in  his  own  meetings 
hundreds  have  been  saved  and  healed.  “Many  blind  have 
received  their  sight,”  he  declares.  “Many  scores  of  deaf 
have  been  made  to  hear.  At  our  great  meeting  in  Wichita. 
Kansas,  several  were  healed  of  paralysis,  of  rheumatism,  of 
cancer  and  of  other  diseases  called  incurable.  One  woman, 
an  invalid  for  twenty  years,  brought  from  Des  Moines  in  a 
wheel  chair,  was  instantly  healed.  She  remained  four  weeks 
walking  around  in  the  meetings  and  giving  her  testimony. 
Her  sister  was  likewise  healed  of  paralysis  and  deafness 
and  gave  me  her  ear  trumpet.  Several  left  their  crutches  and 
canes.  Some  who  were  brought  on  beds  were  made  to  walk. 
The  audience  came  from  nine  states.” 

This  Wichita  campaign  of  Mr.  Nelson’s  began  in  a 
chapel,  then  moved  to  a  church  and  finally  filled  to  over- 

27 


flowing  in  succession  two  of  the  largest  churches  in  the  city. 
Sixteen  local  ministers  assisted  in  it.  During  the  campaign 
the  Wichita  Daily  Eagle  on  March  25,  1921,  published  what 
Mr.  Nelson  announces  as  his  Declaration  of  Principles  as 
the  scriptural  basis  for  divine  healing.  There  are  ten  of 
these  principles,  the  first  of  which  states,  “Divine  healing  is 
not  mental  or  psychic  therapy  or  suggestion.  These  depend 
on  the  power  of  man.”  This  and  the  entire  Declaration  was 
signed  by  the  sixteen  ministers  who  had  participated  in  the 
healing  work,  among  them  Baptists,  Methodists  and  Pres¬ 
byterians. 

Now  there  is  also  another  preacher  of  the  new  healing. 
She  was  a  girl  on  a  farm  in  Ontario,  Canada,  not  so  many 
years  ago,  when  as  she  asserts,  God  called  her.  She  has 
since  been  around  the  world  in  His  service.  In  the  summer 
of  1921  she  had  come  to  Denver,  where  the  streets  were 
banner  hung  for  her  arrival.  “What’s  going  on  in  this 
town?”  inquired  a  travelling  man  as  he  stepped  from  the 
train. 

“It’s  a  woman  in  white,”  they  told  him.  “And  she’s 
turning  the  world  upside  down.”  Aimee  Semple  McPher¬ 
son’s  Denver  appearance  was  the  climax  to  a  campaign  that 
had  covered  many  cities.  Just  previously  she  had  taken 
St.  Louis  by  storm.  Those  who  were  present  at  Denver  say 
scenes  were  witnessed  there  such  as  have  nowhere  else  oc¬ 
curred  outside  of  Galilee.  More  than  3,000  people  claimed 
to  have  been  healed  through  the  evangelist’s  prayers  and 
laying  on  of  hands.  It  is  this  Mrs.  McPherson  who  has  just 
builded  an  house  unto  the  Lord,  the  $100,000  tabernacle 


28 


financed  by  her  followers,  which  she  dedicated  on  January 
1st  in  Los  Angeles. 

From  the  Episcopal  Church,  from  the  Christian  Al¬ 
liance,  and  from  the  campaigns  of  the  dominant  personal 
leaders,  the  healing  revival  has  now  reached  to  every  evan¬ 
gelical  denomination.  More  churches  than  it  would  be 
possible  to  enumerate  are  now  holding  weekly  healing 
services.  Rev.  J.  Wilson  Lunly,  Presbyterian  minister  in 
San  Francisco,  after  participating  in  one  of  Mrs.  McPher¬ 
son’s  campaigns  on  the  Pacific  coast,  declared:  “To  many 
of  us  this  is  something  entirely  new.  But  in  the  presence  of 
the  manifest  and  remarkable  evidences  of  the  Great  Physi¬ 
cian’s  healing  power,  we  give  it  our  unqualified  approval.” 
Rev.  Matthew  Holderby,  Presbyterian  minister  in  Chicago 
where  he  is  the  Director  of  the  movement  the  Christian 
Family  Crusade,  is  now  frequently  speaking  from  the 
public  platform  on  healing.  Mr.  Holderby  says  he  has  had 
a  personal  healing.  He  had  been  in  attendance  at  a  cam¬ 
paign  that  Raymond  T.  Richey  was  conducting  in  Houston, 
Texas.  “There,”  he  says,  “I  saw  wonderful  sights  of  de¬ 
liverance  from  bodily  infirmities.  On  my  return  to  my  home 
in  Chicago,  I  earnestly  prayed  the  Lord  to  manifest  Himself 
to  me  in  a  healing  of  a  deformity  in  my  knee  and  the  ankle 
of  my  left  leg  that  had  been  caused  by  a  severe  attack  of 
arthritis.  I  solemnly  affirm  that  I  have  evidence  that  this 
condition  has  been  remarkably  and  to  me  miraculously 
healed.  The  whole  contour  of  my  ankle  has  been  restored 
to  normal.” 

A  leading  exponent  of  spiritual  healing  among  the  Con- 
gregationalists  is  Rev.  Edwin  House,  of  Hood  River, 

29 


Oregon,  who  at  the  urging  of  the  ministers  of  his  own  de¬ 
nomination,  has  accepted  a  call  to  the  lecture  platform.  A 
special  lecture  at  the  Winona  Bible  Conference  and  a  bril¬ 
liant  platform  speaker  throughout  the  country,  he  has  a 
crowded  itinerary  for  his  lecture  on  the  Psychology  of  Reli¬ 
gion  in  which  he  is  teaching:  “Have  all  the  physicians  thus 
far  failed  to  heal  you?  Take  these  words,  T  am  the  Lord 
that  healeth  thee,’  ”  Exodus  15:26. 

Among  the  Methodists,  Rev.  J.  S.  Bitler,  D.D.,  from  the 
Southern  Methodist  Conference,  has  made  a  special  study 
of  the  healing  as  it  was  manifested  in  both  Mr.  Bosworth’s 
and  Mrs.  McPherson’s  campaigns.  And  Dr.  Bitler  declares, 
“Divine  healing  is  at  the  doors  of  the  Methodist  Church  to¬ 
day  and  we’ve  got  to  admit  it.”  In  Texas  City,  Texas,  Rev. 
W.  I.  Gates,  pastor  of  the  First  Methodist  Church  there, 
formerly  a  cripple  able  to  walk  only  with  the  aid  of  two 
crutches,  was  partially  healed  through  the  ministrations  of 
Mr.  Hickson  and  later  his  cure  was  completed  through  Mr. 
Richey.  Today  at  his  church,  Mr.  Gates  is  actively  engaged 
in  the  healing  work.  In  Washington,  D.  C.,  three  years 
ago,  the  McKendree  Methodist  Church  established  a  weekly 
healing  service.  The  pastor,  Rev.  Charles  A.  Shreve,  de¬ 
clares  that  he  himself  was  spiritually  healed  of  typhoid  fever 
while  the  medicine  that  the  doctor  had  prescribed  lay  un¬ 
touched  on  the  table.  Mr.  Shreve  asserts:  “The  results  of 
our  weekly  prayer  service  at  the  McKendree  Methodist 
Church  speak  for  themselves.  We  have  witnessed  the  heal¬ 
ing  of  a  great  many  people.  Incidentally  we  have  added 
700  to  our  church  membership.  Like  this  in  city  after  city 


30 


and  town  after  town  the  churches  are  engaged  in  spiritual 
healing  today. 

It  is  more  than  a  creed  that  now  confronts  Christianity. 
It  is  a  custom.  The  healing  crusade  that  is  sweeping  over 
America  is  challenging  the  attention  of  as  excited  throngs  as 
watched  the  aeroplanes  ten  years  ago.  The  religious  world 
is  divided  in  opinion  about  the  manifestation.  Are  you  for 
or  against  the  new  healing?  Everyone  is  searching  the 
scriptures  to  find  out.  Some  of  the  theologians  are  aghast. 
The  Denver  Bible  Institute  has  announced  “with  special 
reference  to  Mrs.  McPherson”:  “Of  a  truth  we  live  in  the 
hour  of  the  confusion  of  religions,  an  hour  in  which  Satan 
has  ransacked  his  supernatural  intelligence  to  produce  upon 
the  earth  some  new  form  of  delusion  and  religious  fiasco.” 
Clifton  L.  Fowler,  the  dean  of  the  Institute,  says:  “I  do  not 
believe  that  modern  divine  healing  is  divine.  God  heals. 
But  the  modern  methods  and  the  modern  results  are  beneath 
His  majesty  and  dignity.”  Even  the  Churchman  has  com¬ 
mented  on  James  Moore  Hickson:  “Some  ministers  fell 
pretty  hard  for  Hickson’s  methods.  But  others  feel  that 
these  methods  create  a  certain  psychology  that  in  certain 
neurotic  cases  may  do  real  good  but  in  cases  of  organic 
trouble  would  be  useless  and  possibly  harmful.”  In  reply 
to  which  spoke  Bishop  Manning:  “The  healing  work  per¬ 
formed  by  Mr.  Hickson  is  based  entirely  on  the  first  prin¬ 
ciples  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  beyond  me  to  see  how 
any  Christian  who  believes  in  faith  and  prayer  can  question 
healing  of  this  sort.” 

Yet  there  are  some  Christians  who  do  question  it.  The 
Scruggs  Memorial  Methodist  Church  in  St.  Louis  has  been 

31 


disrupted  over  it,  two-thirds  of  the  membership  following 
the  pastor,  Rev.  Morse  Markley,  to  establish  an  independent 
church  that  will  practise  the  healing.  In  Brooklyn,  New 
York,  the  Bible  Healing  Committee,  a  group  of  ministers 
formed  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  question,  found  that 
the  majority  endorsed  the  new  movement.  A  minority 
opinion,  however,  was  voiced  by  Rev.  T.  W.  Davidson  of 
the  Reformed  Church  on  the  Heights,  who  says:  “I  can  see 
there  is  a  healing.  But  I  don’t  believe  that  it  is  divine.” 

And  there  is  another  group  to  whom  the  phenomena  on 
which  the  attention  of  the  religious  world  is  centered  is  of 
almost  equal  interest.  Many  medical  men  are  agreed  with  a 
New  York  physician,  Dr.  Egbert  H.  Grandin,  who  has 
urged:  “Let  the  shoemaker  stick  to  his  last.  Let  the  clergy¬ 
men  heal  the  soul.  Leave  to  the  physician  the  attempt  to 
cure  diseases.”  Some  believe  with  Dr.  Roehl,  of  the  Detroit 
Health  Department,  who  is  reported  to  have  charged  weep- 
ingly  that  “the  healings  are  due  to  the  delusions  of  psycho¬ 
pathies  and  the  imagination  of  mal-developed  minds.”  But 
there  are  now  all  over  the  country  other  medical  men  whose 
outlook  in  the  situation  is  giving  pause  to  preconceived 
opinion.  Dr.  E.  S.  Cowles  is  a  celebrated  specialist  in 
nervous  disorders.  When  I  asked  Dr.  Cowles,  “Does  prayer 
cure  disease  today?”  he  answered:  “There  is  no  doubt  but 
that  through  prayer,  functional  disorders  have  been  healed. 
But  does  divine  power  directly  heal  organic  disease  that  has 
progressed  to  the  point  of  the  breaking  down  of  bodily  tis¬ 
sue?  I  have  never  seen  this  done.  However,”  he  adds 
simply,  “I  would  not  wish  to  deny  that  it  may  be.  This  is 


32 


a  marvelous  age  in  which  one  hesitates  to  say  of  anything, 
It  is  impossible.” 

Then  I  went  to  Dr.  Richard  S.  Cabot,  of  Boston.  Dr. 
Cabot,  on  the  staff  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital, 
is  a  physician  of  world-wide  renown.  This  is  what  he 
told  me: 

“I  believe  that  prayer  does  cure  disease.  Healing  comes 
to  some  individuals  directly  through  prayer,  I  am  sure.  I 
use  it  in  my  practice  and  rely  on  it  today  more  often  than  on 
medicine.  But  as  a  physician  I  have  never  relied  on  prayer 
alone  for  a  cure.  A  man  who  prays  before  going  into  battle, 
proceeds  to  employ  also  every  other  means  available  for 
winning  his  fight."  So  do  I.  I  believe  that  prayer  is  a  con¬ 
tributing  factor  in  the  victory  over  disease.  And  if  I  had 
no  material  means  at  hand,  I  should  use  prayer  alone,  with 
confidence  that  it  would  work  the  cure  if  recovery  were  in 
conformity  with  God’s  will.  And  when  prayer  has  thus 
been  made  a  factor  in  recovery,  I  believe  it  is  through  direct 
action  on  the  part  of  God.  We  know  that  prayer  produces 
a  definite  result.  Just  how  it  works  is  not  yet  scientifically 
clear,  though  I  think  it  will  be  in  time.  It  is  possible  that 
the  clue  to  the  action  of  prayer  will  be  found  in  the  field  of 
the  emotions.  We  already  know  through  our  laboratory 
experiments  that  some  emotions  have  a  chemical  effect  on 
the  bodily  secretions.  Fear  and  anger,  it  is  now  definitely 
established,  produce  chemical  changes  in  the  body  which 
may  favor  disease.  Fear  may  cause  hyperacidity  of  the 
stomach  and  consequent  indigestion.  For  this  I  might  pre¬ 
scribe  medicine,  giving  the  patient  an  alkali  to  counteract 


33 


the  acid.  But  if  it  is  fear  that  is  the  determining  factor 
producing  the  indigestion,  there  may  be  more  than  an  alkali 
required  to  cure  it.  One  may  try  to  reconstruct  the  patient 
emotionally  through  a  psychological  or  a  spiritual  prescrip¬ 
tion.  The  removal  of  the  fear  from  the  mind  or  soul  may 
indeed  be  the  only  way  to  a  permanent  cure.  You  have  then 
not  only  checked  the  hyperacidity,  but  you  have  as  it  were 
shut  off  the  disease  at  the  source.  Since  science  now  knows 
definitely  that  the  devastating  emotions  like  fear  and  anger 
may  directly  register  adverse  physical  conditions  in  the  body, 
it  is  a  logical  conclusion  that  the  beneficent  emotions  like 
love  and  faith  may  also  act  as  chemically  to  produce  health 
instead  of  disease.  I  believe  that  almost  any  day  now  this 
may  be  demonstrated  in  the  laboratory.  This  way,  you  see, 
lies  the  explanation  for  some  of  the  cures  that  have  appeared 
miraculous.  When  through  prayer,  the  soul  of  man  is 
opened  to  the  love  of  God,  what  flood  gates  of  healing  may 
we  not  have  unloosed  ?  I  believe  that  any  disease  could  be 
cured  through  prayer,  though  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  func¬ 
tional  disorders  that  are  particularly  amenable  to  this  treat¬ 
ment.  But  it  is  also  a  matter  of  record  that  cures  of  organic 
disease  at  the  celebrated  shrine  of  Lourdes  in  France  have 
been  witnessed  and  authenticated  by  physicians.  The  prayer 
groups  in  the  churches  should  not,  of  course,  attempt  to 
handle  cases  say  like  diphtheria,  where  loss  of  life  might 
result  from  lack  of  medical  attention.  But  with  a  due 
recognition  of  this  limitation,  they  can  find  a  very  definite 
and  helpful  work  in  the  treatment  of  some  diseases  that  have 
baffled  the  medical  men.’’ 


34 


So  science  and  religion  are  plainly  met  at  the  crossroads 
today.  It  is  through  their  friendly  co-operation,  that  the 
Episcopal  Church  proposes  to  establish  the  facts  of  spiritual 
healing.  Even  among  the  advocates  of  the  use  of  prayer  as 
a  therapeutic  measure,  there  is  yet  a  difference  of  opinion  to 
be  cleared  away.  The  Christian  Alliance  and  Rev.  Mr.  Bos- 
worth  and  many  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  assert  that  “nothing 
is  too  hard  for  God.”  There  are  others  who  along  with 
many  of  the  medical  men  question  the  efficacy  of  prayer  in 
the  case  of  organic  disease.  So  I  have  asked  some  of  the 
bishops  for  their  opinion. 

Bishop  Boyd  Vincent,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  was  chair¬ 
man  of  the  Commission  on  Healing  that  presented  its  report 
to  the  Episcopal  General  Convention  in  Portland.  And 
Bishop  Vincent  says:  “I  believe  in  the  use  of  prayer  in  co¬ 
operation  with  medical  science.  There  are,  however,  cases 
where  the  medical  men  have  done  all  that  they  could  and 
have  failed  to  produce  a  cure,  where  afterward  the  patient 
had  been  healed  through  prayer.  But  I  believe  these  cases 
are  of  the  particular  type  known  as  functional  disease.  I 
would  not  wish  to  say  that  organic  disease  cannot  be  healed 
through  prayer.  I  can  only  say,  I  have  not  seen  it.” 

So  it  is  to  carry  the  investigation  further,  that  a  new 
Commission  on  Healing  was  appointed  by  the  General 
Convention.  This  commission  is  composed  of  six  bishops, 
six  clergy,  three  laymen  and  three  physicians.  Bishop 
Charles  H.  Brent,  of  Buffalo,  Bishop  of  Western  New  York, 
a  prominent  member  of  the  commission,  is  one  of  the  fore¬ 
most  advocates  of  the  use  of  prayer  in  the  cure  of  disease. 


35 


His  book  “The  Mount  of  Vision”  states  in  no  equivocal 
terms:  “He  who  waves  away  the  healing  power  of  Christ  as 
belonging  only  to  early  New  Testament  times  is  not  preach¬ 
ing  the  whole  gospel.  He  was  and  is  the  Savior  of  the  body. 
God  is  the  same  yesterday,  today  and  forever.  He  who  in 
Jesus  Christ  heals  by  stimulating  spiritual  faculties  to 
appropriate  health,  is  not  dependent  upon  what  doctors  can 
do  nor  helpless  when  doctors  fail.  Our  Lord’s  words  to  the 
imprisoned  Baptist  are  also  for  those  of  us  who  are  in  the 
prison  of  medical  materialism:  ‘Go  your  way  and  tell  John 
the  things  which  you  do  hear  and  see :  the  blind  receive  their 
sight  and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed  and  the  deaf 
hear.  .  .  .  According  to  thy  faith,  so  be  it  unto  thee.’ 

As  I  write,  I  see  the  whole  pathetic  body  of  the  sick  and 
diseased  rising  up  and  claiming  their  right  to  that  sacrament 
of  anointing  which  is  denied  them  by  churches  that  should 
know  better.  Is  it  that  we  are  afraid  that  it  will  not  be  ef¬ 
fective  for  healing  ?  If  so,  it  is  an  acknowledgment  of  weak 
faith.  Anointing  is  the  representative  remedial  act  and 
sanctifies  whatever  physical  treatment  may  be  necessary.  It 
ought  to  have  behind  it  the  sanction  and  blessing  of  the 
entire  church.  .  .  .  God  is  not  the  last  resort  in  sick¬ 

ness.  He  is  the  first.” 

From  my  absorption  in  these  statements,  I  looked  up  to 
meet  the  quiet  gaze  of  the  man  who  had  written  them.  In 
the  drawing  room  of  his  Buffalo  residence  Bishop  Brent 
amplified  these  views  with  a  personal  statement  for  the 
Ladies’  Home  Journal :  “I  believe,”  he  said,  “in  spiritual 
healing.  I  have  successfully  practised  it  in  my  ministry. 


36 


I  regard  it  as  the  function  of  the  church  equally  in  the 
twentieth  as  in  the  first  century.  There  is  no  question  about 
the  spiritual  cures  that  are  occurring  in  great  numbers 
throughout  the  world  today.  I  have  in  a  recent  number  of 
the  Churchman  a  communication  calling  attention  to  James 
Moore  Hickson’s  remarkable  cures  in  Africa.  And  I  can 
vouch  for  other  spiritual  healing  that  has  occurred  within 
the  range  of  my  own  observation.  I  include  not  only  func¬ 
tional  but  organic  disease  as  well.  I  know  of  a  case  of 
cancer  so  diagnosed  by  a  responsible  physician  of  recognized 
standing.  Medical  means  had  failed  to  cure  it.  It  was  an 
outward  and  visible  cancer  and  through  prayer  and  the  lay¬ 
ing  on  of  hands  it  was  healed  so  that  only  the  scar  of  it 
remains. 

“To  this  and  to  other  cures,”  continued  the  bishop,  “I 
know  that  objectors  reply,  'O  well,  then  the  diagnosis  must 
have  been  wrong.  It  couldn’t  have  been  the  really  malignant 
growth  that  is  scientifically  cancer.’  My  reply  is  that  of  the 
blind  man  to  the  objectors  in  Bible  days  who  assailed  his 
healing,  'Whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  know  that  I  see.’ 

“Beyond  per  adventure,  something  was  the  matter  with 
all  these  sick  people  who  now  say  they  are  well.  And  so 
great  is  the  mass  of  cumulative  evidence  now  piled  up,  that 
it  is  but  begging  the  question  any  longer  to  fall  back  on  the 
futile  refutation  that  if  the  person  got  well,  then  the  original 
diagnosis  must  have  been  wrong.  Not  so  many  doctors 
could  reasonably  have  been  mistaken.  Some  of  these  people 
who  say  they  have  been  healed,  by  all  the  rules  of  probability 
must  have  had  the  diseases  of  which  they  claim  that  God  has 
cured  them. 


37 


“What  we  need  to  realize  is  that  not  our  physical  but  our 
spiritual  nature  is  the  dominant  part  of  us.  It  is  the 
monarch  that  holds  sway  over  all  the  rest  of  us.  Also  I 
want  to  say  that  I  find  no  conflict  between  science  and 
religion.  Now  faith  is  operative  in  every  department  of  life. 
And  we  do  certainly  know  this,  that  faith  irrespective  of  its 
object  has  an  enormous  power  over  human  life.  Just  look 
back  at  what  we  call  our  patent  medicine  era.  We  know  now 
there  wasn’t  any  science  behind  it,  most  of  it.  Yet  it  un¬ 
doubtedly  did  bring  health  within  the  reach  of  many  people. 
Now  there  you  have  an  instance  where  there  was  the  essence 
of  faith  though  independent  of  a  worthy  object.  Look  a 
little  further  and  in  the  domain  of  modern  psychology  today 
see  faith  operating  on  another  and  a  higher  plane  through 
suggestion.  I  have  in  mind  an  instance  where  I  know  that 
it  occurred.  A  woman  had  an  abdominal  tumor.  The 
famous  surgeon  who  was  to  operate  for  its  removal,  discov¬ 
ered  on  laying  open  the  abdomen  that  the  tumor  was  so 
closely  tied  up  with  vital  organs  that  its  removal  would 
have  caused  death.  So  he  quietly  sewed  up  the  opening  he 
had  made.  When  the  patient  came  out  from  under  the 
anaesthetic,  she  was  not  acquainted  with  the  facts,  but  was 
assured  that  the  operation  was  successful.  That  was  in 
1901.  To  this  day  she  does  not  know  the  facts,  but  believes, 
of  course,  that  the  surgeon  cut  out  her  tumor.  That  belief 
operated  as  successfully,  however,  as  any  knife  could  have 
done.  Since  1901  the  woman  has  been  perfectly  well. 
This  shows  what  suggestion  and  faith  can  accomplish.  And 
today  all  the  world,  through  the  efforts  of  the  great  French 


38 


scientist  Coue,  is  coming  into  an  understanding  of  the  cura¬ 
tive  effect  of  auto-suggestion.  I  would  not  in  the  least 
underrate  all  of  the  modern  psychological  aids  to  health. 
The  only  test  we  need  to  apply  to  them  is,  Are  they  sound 
according  to  the  psychology  of  Jesus?  I  believe  they  are. 
And  then  I  believe  something  more  about  them:  I  believe 
they  in  themselves  justify  spiritual  healing. 

“Psychological  healing,  as  it  were,  goes  half  way. 
Spiritual  healing  goes  the  whole  way  and  all  the  way.  In 
spiritual  healing  we  find  faith  operating  on  its  highest  plane. 
It  is  on  this  plane  that  the  greatest  curative  results  may  be 
expected,  and  we  today  are  in  fact  seeing  them  occur.  When 
we  arrive  at  faith,  not  in  any  material  or  psychological 
means,  but  religious  faith  in  the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  we 
have  a  faith  that  acts  not  only  through  its  subjective  power, 
but  it  also  relates  itself  to  a  real  object.  And  that  object  is 
the  Source  of  health  and  life,  none  other  than  God  Himself. 
God  is  always  the  Source  of  all  healing  even  when  medicine 
or  psychology  is  employed  to  that  end.  But  in  spiritual 
healing,  God’s  highest  power  becomes  operative. 

“Through  the  exercise  of  faith  we  give  God  direct  recog¬ 
nition,  and  then  in  return  he  gives  us  direct  action.  God’s 
response  is  always  as  direct  as  is  our  movement  toward  Him. 
God  is  ever  ready  and  waiting  to  lay  hold  of  life  in  every 
department  that  is  open  to  Him.  Though  sometimes  there 
is  no  room  at  the  inn,  and  He  has  to  go  to  a  stable.  It  is  the 
common  people  to  whom  spiritual  healing  comes  most  fre¬ 
quently.  Among  the  more  highly  educated  classes,  intellect 
and  what  we  may  term  medical  materialism  too  often  inhibit 


39 


the  operation  of  the  spiritual  faculty  and  the  action  of  God. 
Not  all  who  seek  spiritual  healing,”  concluded  the  bishop, 
“find  it.  We  do  not  yet  know  all  of  the  conditions  by  which 
it  operates.  But  of  this  I  am  certain,  that  spiritual  healing 
through  prayer  is  based  on  as  immutable  laws  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  as  is  electricity  or  the  radio  or  the  aeroplane.  The  law 
operates  successfully  when  it  is  correctly  applied.  That 
we  sometimes  fail  to  get  the  healing  does  not  in  the  least 
invalidate  the  law.  What  we  need  to  remember  is  that  there 
are  regular  rules  for  this  science  as  for  any  other.  I  regard 
Rev.  Henry  B.  Wilson,  of  Boonton,  New  Jersey,  as  one  of 
the  great  experts  who  know  how  to  apply  them.  In  his  line 
he  is  as  great  a  specialist,  we  may  say,  as  is  Edison  in  the 
Electrical  or  Marconi  in  the  Wireless  World.  Lastly,  we 
should  never  overlook  the  fact  that  the  chief  function  of 
religion  is  not  as  a  means  to  restore  health,  but  as  a  means  by 
which  to  know  God.  And  the  spiritual  benefits  that  it  may 
bestow  on  the  soul,  far  outweigh  the  physical  healing  that 
we  may  seek  for  the  body.” 

Now  still  another  member  of  the  new  Commission  on 
Healing  is  Bishop  Theodore  Irving  Reese,  of  Columbus, 
Ohio.  And  Bishop  Reese  says:  “The  healing  of  the  body 
is  an  essential  element  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Prayer  is 
today  an  accepted  therapeutic  measure.  By  its  fruits  we 
know  that  it  is  efficacious  in  the  cure  of  disease.  I  personally 
have  seen  lists  of  the  patients  healed  through  Mr.  Hickson’s 
ministrations  in  1919,  who  have  stayed  healed.  These  lists, 
carefully  followed  up,  are  in  the  hands  of  the  Episcopal 
clergy  in  various  cities  of  the  United  States.  There  is  no 
longer  any  question  but  that  spiritual  healing  works  today 

40 


as  in  Christ’s  time.  And  there  is  no  question  but  that  the 
church  is  commissioned  to  preach  and  practise  it.  But  we 
do  need  to  know  more  of  the  laws  through  which  it  operates. 
We  must  have  a  careful  scientific  record  of  conditions  before 
and  after  and  during  the  moment  of  healing.  It  is  with  the 
purpose  of  securing  this  data,  that  the  American  Guild  of 
Health  has  been  organized.  I  have  accepted  the  chairman¬ 
ship  of  its  Advisory  Committee.  We  are  going  to  co-operate 
with  the  Society  of  the  Nazarene  and  all  of  the  prayer 
groups.  It  is  our  intention,  with  the  aid  of  physicians  as 
broad  as  Dr.  Cabot,  of  Boston,  to  prove  spiritual  healing  as 
a  scientific  fact.  We’re  out  to  get  real  evidence  that  no 
materialist  can  shoot  full  of  holes.  Then  we  shall  go  ahead 
to  sell  the  idea  especially  to  the  seminaries,  so  that  young 
men  educated  for  the  ministry  in  the  future,  will  be  prepared 
to  handle  the  healing  of  the  body  along  with  the  healing  of 
the  soul,  as  an  essential  part  of  their  pastoral  work.” 

The  new  organization,  The  American  Guild  of  Health, 
has  for  its  president  another  member  of  the  Episcopal  Com¬ 
mission  on  Healing,  Rev.  Franklyn  Cole  Sherman,  of 
Akron,  Ohio.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Sherman  has  recently  resigned 
his  pastorate  as  rector  of  St.  Paul’s  in  Akron  to  take  charge 
of  the  movement  which  he  has  been  selected  to  direct.  The 
Guild  of  Health  last  February  opened  national  head¬ 
quarters  in  Cleveland,  Ohio.  Mr.  Sherman  is  an  enthusiast 
on  spiritual  healing.  Today  a  picture  of  vigorous  health, 
he  is  a  tuberculosis  cure.  “And,”  he  asserts,  “I  have  all  the 
X-ray  photographs  before  and  after  to  prove  it. 

“Our  Guild  is  very  much  in  earnest,”  he  continues. 
We  re  going  to  get  evidence  like  mine  for  the  movement  at 

41 


large.  We  intend  to  have  spiritual  healing  substantiated  by 
the  affidavits  of  physicians  of  recognized  standing.  These 
healings  are  occurring  all  about  us  in  the  case  not  only  of 
functional  but  of  organic  disease.  They  are  accomplished 
through  coming  into  direct  conscious  communion  with  God. 
Psychoanalysis  and  auto-suggestion  and  the  laying  on  of 
hands  are  contributing  means,  all  of  them,  to  that  great  end. 
There  is  a  religious  approach  and  there  is  a  scientific  ap¬ 
proach  to  spiritual  healing.  What  psychology  can  do  is  to 
teach  us  how  to  apply  religion  so  that  it  will  get  physical 
bodily  results.  What  our  Guild  wants  to  do  is  to  find  out  all 
the  laws  by  which  spiritual  healing  works.  And  we  have 
16  bishops  of  the  Episcopal  Church  backing  us  in  our 
movement.” 

Like  this  today,  metaphysical  science  and  material 
science  are  joining  hands  in  spiritual  research.  At  a  meet¬ 
ing  of  the  Episcopal  Church  Commission  on  Health  recently, 
Dr.  Cowles,  of  New  York,  who  is  one  of  its  members,  pre¬ 
sented  a  plan  for  a  unique  institution.  He  proposes  a 
hospital  for  every  kind  of  treatment  for  body  and  soul.  He 
would  have  it  open  for  “all  men  to  show  their  wares.” 
Divine  healing  would  be  as  welcome  as  drug  healing.  Op¬ 
portunity  would  be  afforded  ministers  and  medical  men  to 
meet  together  on  equal  ground  in  pursuit  of  God’s  truth. 

•  Meanwhile  if  divine  healing  comes  to  your  town,  it  is 
well  to  remember  what  Bishop  Brent  has  pointed  out,  that 
not  all  who  seek  may  find  it.  It  may  even  be  that  the  divine 
thing  will  be  attained  by  the  cook’s  cousin,  while  it  com¬ 
pletely  eludes,  say,  the  richest  vestryman  who  passes  the 


42 


plate  on  Sunday.  The  statistics  on  the  cures  vary.  An 
Episcopal  clergyman,  the  rector  of  Grace  and  St.  Peter’s 
Church,  Baltimore,  says  that  among  his  people  who  seek 
healing  about  32  per  cent  receive  it.  Mr.  Bosworth’s  figures 
are  about  50  per  cent.  And  Mrs.  McPherson  claims  as  high 
as  80  per  cent. 

The  Denver  Bible  Society  has  issued  a  little  pamphlet 
listing  some  cases  of  spiritual  healing  that  failed.  These 
are,  of  course,  to  be  found.  But  on  the  other  hand  note  the 
cases  of  material  healing  that  failed,  as  recorded  on  all  the 
headstones  of  all  the  graveyards.  For  success  in  spiritual 
science  as  in  any  other,  as  all  of  its  specialists  point  out,  it  is 
important  to  find  out  the  fundamental  principles.  As  a 
background,  read  Crile  on  the  Emotions  and  Berman  on 
Glands.  Then  for  exact  technique,  there  is  a  book  for  which 
Bishop  Brent  has  himself  written  the  introduction.  It  is  the 
Power  to  Heal  by  Henry  B.  Wilson,  who  the  bishop  says 
is  the  great  modern  expert  on  spiritual  or  divine  healing. 

Does  Christ  still  heal?  Let  the  doctrinal  discussions 
wage.  Suppose  you  lift  your  eyes  and  look  on  those  who  say 
He  does.  See.  From  the  cook’s  cousin  to  the  society  lady 
and  the  man  in  the  street,  there’s  a  shining  in  their  faces, 
there’s  a  radiance  in  their  whole  personality. 

Something  has  happened  to  them. 


43 


Ghosts  or  Gospels 

By  HENRY  B.  WILSON,  B.D. 

Spiritism  as  practiced  by  mediums  compared  with  the  true  spiritualism  as 
revealed  by  the  Master. 

How  far  does  modern  spiritualism  conflict  with  the  teachings  of  Chris¬ 
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A  book  that  clears  up  many  disturbing  problems  and  will  satisfy  many 
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A  guide  to  the  highest  use  of  our  psychic  powers.  Price,  $1.25. 


Does  Christ  Still  Heal  ? 

By  HENRY  B.  WILSON,  B.D. 

Did  Christ’s  commission  to  His  disciples  to  “heal  the  sick”  terminate  with  the 
death  of  the  apostles,  or  is  it  still  in  active  existence?  Are  the  churches 
really  Christian  in  their  belief  about  pain  and  sickness? 

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the  words  and  deeds  of  Christ. 

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By  HENRY  B.  WILSON,  B.D. 

Foreword  by  THE  RIGHT  REV.  C.  H.  BRENT,  D.D. 

Bishop  of  Western  New  York 

A  Handbook  of  Preparation  for  Healing  of  Self  and  Others,  According  to  the 

Methods  of  Jesus. 

New  edition,  revised  and  enlarged,  just  published.  Contains  Introduction  and 
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Cloth  boards,  $1.00  postpaid 


Paper,  50  cents 


“Body  and  Soul” 

By  the  REV.  PERCY  DEARMER,  M.A.,  D.D. 

Professor  in  Kings  College,  University  of  London 
Published  bv  E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co.,  $2.50. 

Can  be  obtained  direct  from  the  Nazarene  Press,  Asheville,  N.  C. 

This  book  is  an  enauiry  into  the  effect  of  Religion  upon  Health,  with  a 
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It  is  an  ideal  book  for  study  groups  and  guilds  and  contains  an  introduction 
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conspicuous  merit  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  it  has  been  the  leading  book  on 
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MR.  WILSON’S  LAST  BOOK 

God’s  Will  for  the  World 

A  Refutation  of  the  Popular  Interpretation  of  the  Phrase 

“Thy  Will  Be  Done” 

By  HENRY  B.  WILSON,  B.D. 

Author  of  “Does  Christ  Still  Heal?” 

“The  Power  to  Heal,”  Etc. 

“Thy  Will  Be  Done,”  one  of  our  most  frequent  prayers  and  inherited  by 
the  Christian  from  the  very  lips  of  Christ,  is  yet  generally  misunderstood  and 
nearly  always  wrongly  used,  as  the  author  conclusively  proves  in  this  book. 

“Thy  Will  Be  Done”  should  not  be  a  sigh  of  despairing  resignation  under 
physical  sickness,  failure  and  suffering,  but  a  shout  of  triumphant  anitcipation 
of  happiness  and  health  and  joy. 


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